our long and wonderful weekend.

we really did have an awesome weekend. 

we got the rest of the rooms painted upstairs (pics to follow tomorrow)!

we played outside in the water

we played with neighbors in the water. and there was no fighting! it was awesome. 

(nola almost 3, jane almost 5, addie almost 3, avery 4 1/2)

we had a cookout with neighbors in all the 4 houses up from us. was i was taking this picture i remember saying "i can't even get 2 girls to look and smile at me, how am i going to do it with 5?" proof.

avery and her friend jane. and jane's sister addie :)

when we got home from the bbq, avery took this picture. 

i took this one. 

and i think nola took this. 

 we put the girls to bed (it was LATE) and went back outside to kill the fire in the firepit and sit and talk while we finished our drinks. we could hear nola yelling for me to do something, but we couldn't figure out what. she never started crying so we left it, and they fell asleep on their own in record time!

we are mad about watercolors around here. this is avery's latest creation. colorful sunshines. 

 zane and i were having dinner and realized that a vodka tonic and boulevard double-wide ipa make the PERFECT combo. the ipa is like the main course and the tonic was a refreshing dessert. try it sometime. make sure you are generous with the lime (a neighbor taught me that ;))

we went to the memorial day parade up the street that we always go to. we went to home depot first, then stopped in cushing square for breakfast. avery ate her weight in silver dollar pancakes, and nola announced to the cafe that she went pee in the potty. we got our spots to watch the parade and the girls fell and nola ripped up her elbow (this picture was taken soon after). and i think the girl in the background went to college with me. small world!

some other things:

*today i was changing my shirt and avery said "mom. you're belly looks bigger. you've got a big belly and it wiggles when you move". 

*yesterday, she said "mom, when i'm your age i'm going to have a baby. it will be in my belly." (looks down at her belly) "but, i have a cute little belly button. i don't want my belly button to look like yours".

(wow. way to cut me down in just 2 days! i know it's superficial. i know that any stretch mark or wrinkled skin was well worth carrying two healthy (and huge) babies, but man. she hit me hard :))

*nola is in an "I NEED TO BE FIRST OR THE WINNER AT EVERYTHING!" stage. hence, the busted elbow.

*i'm so excited that the upstairs is painted. i needed to say that again.

*when i think of the fact that avery is turning FIVE, i almost lose it. 5. that's not baby. or toddler. or preschool anymore. that's big kid. 5. 

*i'm at my wits end with google accounts, blogger accounts, my simmons account (which is now managed through google which means i have to sign in twice?), etc. i'm ready to delete them all and just have ONE account. but that would take too much work. so for now i just keep logging off, signing in, etc. driving me crazy.

*and on that note, i'm taking a facebook break for the summer. so excited about it. the only drawback is the mom's group (from november '07) that has a private group on there. it's the only way i can connect/keep up with them, and i really don't want to walk away from that completely. so i'll have to figure something out. 

*

the tale of two girls

(so i don't know why the pics are blurry on the page, but then clear when you click to enlarge. any ideas?)

this is what i get when i tell avery to look at the camera and smile.

this is what i get when i say the same thing to nola.

and finally, after many out-takes, one that truly captures her personality.

i adore each of them with all their quirks and unique-ness ;)

slowing down.

i think the trick to getting the girls to sleep with their new arrangements is:
*giving them some time after we give them kisses and leave the room to talk, giggle, tell the jokes that only they understand or think are funny (ie, you're eyeball face! no, you're doodoo face!)
*after they've had a chance to unwind with each other (or, rather, rile each other up a bit more) we (or just me during nap times) go back in, say na-na again and tell them that they had their fun, now it's time to settle down and go to sleep.
*this still doens't really do the trick, so i've been sitting in the chair in their room to keep and eye and ear on things. avery usually settles down first, and nola keeps up her antics for a few minutes until she realizes that no one's having fun anymore :) then she squirms around for a while and finally goes to sleep.

success! sleeping girls, less stressed us, and it's a really nice treat to sit in a dark and quiet room for a while and have nothing to really do or concentrate on. win for everyone i guess.
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it's friday! before a 3 day weekend! all i know is that zane deserves every minute of this "break". he's been busting his you-know-what at work with no assistant, finishing up work for a reading instruction class he took this semester and in general trying to prepare for the end of the school year.

our plans? FINISH PAINTING!

we have two rooms left to prime and paint trim and walls. we also have a few random pieces of furniture that we want to paint white. i can't wait to get it done and get furniture back in place. then i don't want to look at a paint can or roller for months.

the weather is supposed to be on the nice side this weekend, so we also plan to be outside as much as possible enjoying fresh air and each other. and, to celebrate my one year anniversary of running, i plan on re-committing myself to getting outside whenever i can and running for however much i can or want to. so excited to get back into it.
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the other day the girls took a great nap, so i told them that zane had something really special to do with them after they woke up.

face paint!

they both wanted to be cats and zane did a wonderful job making it happen :)
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we're getting close to figuring out what to do for nola's birthday in a few weeks! i keep thinking "eh, it's not until june, we've got time" but then realized that june starts next week. so we need to get on the ball.

on that note, nola told me this morning " mom, for my birthday i want a mom pinata." i clarified "so you want my face as the pinata?" she said yes, so she either loves me so much she wants me to be a big part of her party, or she wants to smack me in the face with a bat. it's anyone's guess, really ;)

lucky duck.

today the sun came out after the girls got up from their naps. we went into the front yard to soak up the warmth, and eat a little snack. we were waiting for zane to get home and the girls were getting restless. avery noticed the clover all over our lawn, and i told her to try and find a 4-leaf clover. i figured she would be entertained and it would kill some time while we waited. she picked one up, and i said 'nope, 3 leaves. try again.' she picked another one and said "four leaves". i said 'nope, don't think so.' but she insisted. so i looked closer.

holy cow.

bring on the luck!

Destructor

once again, this week has been cloudy, cool, rainy, blegh. the sun has come out for minutes at a time today and when it's out, my mood instantly lifts. it's the wildest thing. and then, as soon as it's cloudy again, i'm mopey. since we had virtually no winter this year, i remember hearing theories that we'd have a wet spring. guess someone was right.

the girls are sleeping (!!!!), and i only had to sit in their room for 10 minutes to make sure no one (ahem, nola) was sneaking out of their bed or trying to be a stand up comedian. yesterday, i took her out of the room twice (once at naptime, once at bedtime) with her mattress and she didn't like it one bit. hopefully that'll be a reminder for her to stay put and to stay quiet. we'll see.

the steps that i painted last week are already ruined. well, not really ruined, we can paint them again, but that's a pain and a time committment that we don't have right now. i don't think i even need to hint at who is responsible. 

 in other news, we're so excited for summer! i've been seeing some "summer bucket lists" around the internet, so we made ours yesterday. i might make another one too, because i've been thinking of lots of little things to do during the days that it isn't nice enough to go to the res beach, etc. avery and nola were using watercolors with me, and wanted me to make a "paper with letters and numbers and boxes, big and small" for them to color. avery did an awesome job with hers! if i had known how cute it was going to turn out, i would have taken more time to make my part neater, and maybe would have tried harder to remember nola's birthday, and my married name. (note: put this on the next summer list)

on that same note, i got an email from one of my summer class professors yesterday with the syllabus and assignment schedule. it was more a "here's what's coming up, so you can plan accordingly and get everything you need before it's too late", but my reaction to it was "NOOOOOO! i haven't had enough time off! i don't want to do more work! it's almost summer, but that means that it's almost class time!" at least this isn't the class i'm looking forward to. just one that i have to take to graduate. i can't wait to get my other class info! children's lit? very excited about it :)

told ya we were excited. 

what were we thinking?

well, we did it!

zane made a bunk bed for the girls to fit crib mattresses, we bought steps from ikea, painted everything white, and finally got it all set up in the girls room this weekend. 

so far, it's gone pretty terribly. but i guess that's to be expected. the first night we kept them up late-partly to wear them out, partly to finish putting things together, and then they were up until probably midnight. running around, shrieking, giggling, yelling, etc. finally, some threats kept them quiet until about 6am. 

yesterday we were part of a multi-family yard sale on our street. the girls were outside all morning playing in the sun and warm fresh air. they were exhausted. and yet at nap time, they did a repeat of the night before. 

(let it be known that as i was writing this, the girls were upstairs for their "nap", and i had to go up 3 times, eventually removing one from the room for a "talk", then ended up sitting in a chair until they fell asleep.)

by the time last night rolled around they were both zombies, and with the help of exhaustion and some benedryl for nola (she was stuffy, we didn't just give it to her for the fun of it), they were asleep in about 30 minutes after some crying last night. 

so. we'll see how long it takes to get into some sort of routine, and for the newness and excitement to wear off. i'll say right now that it's definitely all nola that's causing trouble, but given her behavior the last few weeks, i'm not too surprised. when avery was her age, we had big time bedtime battles and once found her asleep on the bathroom floor :)

just want to say, THANK YOU zane for the amazing job you did with the bed. i'm pretty sure it's something the girls are going to treasure with all the memories they'll make in this room together!

and ps, i'm thinking of getting a rail for the bottom "bunk". nola fell out (or rolled half her body out) the first night, and i've noticed that she sleeps ascloseaspossible to the edge of the bed. 

mom's the word.

happy (late) mother's day to all out there who deserve more than one day to be celebrated ;)

note to self: the day after mother's day is usually better than the holiday itself!

we had a good day, overall. we went to my sister's house for a cookout--delicious food!!--and the girls did much better than i had expected. they had no naps, avery was finally fever-free after 3 days, and nola was just acting insane. they did wonderfully while we were out though, and it was a much needed break for zane and i. i'll leave out details, but the morning and evening weren't so pretty. it the end though, i got lots of "i love you mama, happy mother's day!" shouts, hugs and kisses. that's all i really need anyway :)

today, however, has been magical. the girls woke up and snuggled in bed with me (without fighting over which side they were on!), ate breakfast and helped each other out when they were cleaning up, did a puzzle together, and both climbed in a chair with me after lunch to snuggle before we went upstairs for naps.

but the best present of all...i picked the girls up a little early from school b/c i was done with errands and i figured they were having a hard morning with little sleep, etc. nope. instead, when i walked in, mrs. t told me that nola had done an awesome job and there hadn't been one issue. suddenly, nola comes running up to me yelling "i used my words, mama!!!!"

my heart burst with pride and happiness :)

before i left them this morning, i told nola "use your words, not your hands" like i say everytime i drop her off now. she's been sneakily nudging, poking, etc other kids and everyone's getting pretty sick of it. something must have clicked today though, b/c even as she was running to me, two boys were trying to get in her face and yell, and instead of knocking them down, she ducked out of the way and said "no THANK YOU!" :)

happy mother's day, indeed.

gray skies, blue skies.

we finally have some sun and blue skies after days and days of clouds and rain and cold!
with that sun comes a (possible) fever for avery and sickness that came out of nowhere :(
we were on our way to a wake last night (zane's assistant at work lost her husband early this week-a huge part of our sad and gloomy week) and avery complained of her throat hurting, then got sick. i turned around and by the time we were all heading to bed, she seemed fine and had eaten some toast and applesauce.
this morning she has rosy cheeks, sick-looking eyes, a headache and hasn't wanted to eat, though she says nothing hurts but her head.
poor thing.
at least there's no homework to get in the way of parenting :) off to cuddle.

movin' on up.

what a crazy, hectic, busy weekend. and we put all of it on ourselves. on friday afternoon we began switching the office and the playroom...the downstairs sunroom had been the playroom, and the upstairs sunroom had been the office. we figured that once we move the girls to share a room, it would be nice to have their playroom right off their bedroom. the work of moving furniture, cleaning, keeping kids busy (during the most ridiculous full moon personality changes!), and re-organizing everything made for a challenging couple of days. however, these two rooms are done for the most part--still need to put things on walls and finalize a few minor details. it feels good and worth it to have put the work in. AND it makes us excited to get the rest of the upstairs moved around. we've figured out what we're doing with the 2 rooms that the girls are moving out of, and it'll be nice to see it "live".

this was taken on saturday morning, in the new office/some-toys-for-the-girls space. they love the chair.

almost as much as they used to ;)

and this is from when nola woke up from her nap and came downstairs. when avery was waking up dry from overnight (big accomplishment that's taken a while, but we've learned that we cannot control her body ;)), we'd put her dry pull-up on our heads and dance around. nola was so excited and proud to come downstairs with a pull-up on her head to show us she was dry.

except, she wasn't...which is weird, because she's been dry for naps for weeks now, but we put a pullup on just in case. so she came downstairs with a wet pull-up on her head. the good part is that the pull-up was turned inside out, so there was no harm done ;) and we all played along that she was dry because the proud look on her face was priceless, and who wants to ruin a good thing?

so. i'm off to get ready for my last day of classes this term. i've had "MAY 7th" in my head for what seems like an eternity. i can't believe it's finally here. 2 more classes, my student teaching and i'm done. exciting and surreal. 

full moon rising.

ok, so this week started out so well! things were getting done, people were happy and relaxed.
don't know what happened, but it all went downhill after tuesday morning.
it's all these little things that are just to give some examples:
*avery sings the ABC's wrong on purpose b/c it drives nola nuts. avery laughs, nola cries. big mess.
*i tell them that we're going to go get a milkshake (i want one and they had done something awesome), but between the time we get dressed upstairs and come downstairs there are about 8 time outs and so much bickering and whining that i call the whole trip off. which does not go over well.
*avery is standing in the doorway and pretending nola doesn't want to come in the room. nola runs over her foot with a barbie car. avery cries.
*the girls were cleaning up toys last night before bed. avery started to help nola clean up the balls. nola freaked out. both of them started screaming. both got sent upstairs.
*avery was playing with the bike. then she was done playing with the bike. 10 minutes later nola started playing with the bike. avery claimed she was still playing with it and nola swiped it. nola gets mad and tries to run into avery with the bike.

there are definitely moments like this that happen every day in some form or another. but this week, they seem the majority.

though i just read about the "super" full moon in a couple days, so that very well could be contributing to these shenanigans.

ugh. needed to vent. i'm exhausted.

CHECK!

i'm done. so done that i couldn't even finish the post yesterday :) done with homework until june 17th (or something). still have class next week, but eh, i'll take it.
so far, today (a welcomed rainy day to stay in and get chores done) and i'm only on my second cup of coffee!
2 loads of laundry: check.
1 load of dishes: check.
vaccuumed most of the downstairs: check.
cleaned off the dining table: check.
played play-doh with the girls: check.
let them play with glitter paint: check.
let avery make her own jelly sandwich: check.
calm nola's tantrum after she was told she can't use a knife yet: check.
snuggled on the couch together and watched tv: check.
mentally made a list of all the things we need to do/buy/make/paint in order to make their joint room a success: check.
pick up and put away all the clothes on our bedroom floor: um, not yet. but that's next.

i had no idea how stressed out i was with school. i mean, i knew a little bit, but the weight lifted off my shoulders this morning felt amazing and i'm taking full advantage of it.